Matthew 24:37

37 . Noe ] This, the Greek form of the name, appears in E. V., Luke 17:26 ; “Noah” is read in the other passages where the name occurs, 1 Peter 3:20 ; 2 Peter 2:5 ; Hebrews 11:7 . The Last Day will surprise men occupied in their pleasures and their business, as the Flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ( Luke 17:27-29 ) surprised all except those who “watched.” All such great and critical events are typical of the End of the World. coming ] See Matthew 24:3 .

Matthew 24:37-41 . But as the days of Noe were, &c. — As then they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till they were surprised by the flood, notwithstanding the frequent warnings and admonitions of that preacher of righteousness: so now, they shall be engaged in the business and pleasures of the world, little expecting, little thinking of this universal ruin, till it come upon them, notwithstanding the express predictions and declarations of Christ and his apostles. Then shall two be in the field, &c. — That is, Providence will then make a distinction between such as are not at all distinguished now. Some shall be rescued from the destruction of Jerusalem, like Lot out of the burning of Sodom; while others, nowise different in outward circumstances, shall be left to perish in it. Two women shall be grinding at the mill — A passage in Dr. E. Daniel Clarke’s Travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, published in 1812, (p. 428,) may fitly be quoted here. “Scarcely had we reached the apartment prepared for our reception,” (namely, in Nazareth,) “when, looking from the window into the court-yard belonging to the house, we beheld two women grinding at the mill in a manner most forcibly illustrating a saying of our Saviour’s. In the centre of the upper stone was a cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the side of this an upright wooden handle for moving the stone.

As the operation began, one of the women, with her right hand, pushed this handle to the woman opposite, who again sent it to her companion; thus communicating a rotatory and very rapid motion to the upper stone, their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the sides of the machine.” Hitherto we have explained the contents of this chapter as relating to the destruction of Jerusalem; of which, without doubt, it is primarily to be understood. But though it is to be understood of this primarily, yet not of this only; for there is no question that our Lord had a further view in it. It is usual with the prophets to frame and express their prophecies so as that they shall comprehend more than one event, and have their several periods of completion. This every one must have observed who has been ever so little conversant in the writings of the ancient prophets, and this doubtless is the case here; and the destruction of Jerusalem is to be considered as typical of the end of the world, of which the destruction of a great city is a lively type and image.

(37) As the days of Noe were. —Here again we note an interesting coincidence with the Epistles of St. Peter, both of which teem, more than any other portions of the New Testament, with references to the history to which the mind of the writer had been directed by his Master’s teaching, 1Peter 3:20 ; 2Peter 2:5 ; 2Peter 3:6 . This is, perhaps, all the more noticeable from the fact that the report of the discourse in St. Mark does not give the reference, neither indeed does that in St. Luke, but substitutes for it a general warning-call to watchfulness and prayer. Possibly (though all such conjectures are more or less arbitrary) the two Evangelists who were writing for the Gentile Christians were led to omit the allusion to a history which was not so familiar to those whom they had in view as it was to the Hebrew readers of St. Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew 24:37-39 . But ( δέ , introducing an analogous case from an early period in sacred history) as regards the ignorance as to the precise moment of its occurrence, it will be with the second coming as it was with the flood. ἦσαν … τρώγοντες ] not for the imperfect, but to make the predicate more strongly prominent. Comp. on Matthew 7:29 . τρώγειν means simply to eat ( John 6:54-58 ; John 13:18 ), not devouring like a beast (Beza, Grotius, Cremer), inasmuch as such an unfavourable construction is not warranted by any of the matters afterwards mentioned. γαμοῦντες κ . ἐκγαμ .] uxores in matrimonium ducentes et filias collocantes , descriptive of a mode of life without concern, and without any foreboding of an impending catastrophe. καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν ] The “it” (see Nägelsbach, Iliad , p. 120, ed. 3) to be understood after ἔγνωσαν is the flood that is so near at hand. Fritzsche’s interpretation: “quod debebant intelligere” (namely, from seeing Noah build the ark), is arbitrary. The time within which it may be affirmed with certainty that the second advent will suddenly burst upon the world, cannot be supposed to refer to that which intervenes between the destruction of Jerusalem and the advent, a view precluded by the εὐθέως of Matthew 24:29 . That period of worldly unconcern comes in just before the final consummation, Matthew 24:15 ff., whereupon the advent is immediately to follow ( Matthew 24:29-32 ).

This last and most distressing time of all, coupled with the advent immediately following it, forms the terminus ante quem , and corresponds to the πρὸ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ of the Old Testament analogy. ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ] without repeating the preposition before ᾗ ( John 4:54 ). Comp. Xen. Anab . v. 7. 17, and Kühner on the passage; Winer, p. 393 [E. T. 524 f.]; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Apol . p. 27 D. Comp. Matthew 24:50 .